A segment within the discussions was China and its authoritarian government. Snowden disagrees that an authoritarian government did not help China flatten the curve. However, I believe that because an authoritarian government has more control, it might be easier for them to get support from citizens. In the United States, the Center for Disease and Control got a lot of push back following their mask mandates which could have prolonged our time in a pandemic. Furthermore, Snowden claims that China might also be dissimulating their numbers due to politics being involved. This conversation branched into the discussion of how exactly Covid-19 positive numbers and the locations of individuals with Covid-19 are calculated. For example, cell phone towers and wireless networks around us allow phones to track our locations.
I think that Edward Snowden has plausible speculations about how the future can form concerning our state of privacy. However, I believe that it is a possibility that what he thinks can happen won’t happen. For perception, emergency powers are born out of states of crisis, and they are never retracted. During the Bush-era, wireless tapping was used and only partially shut down due to privacy concerns. This and other movements like the tracking of our health support the notion that our “Privacy: isn’t so private.” I agree with Snowden’s claims that the issue surrounding our state of privacy is building the architecture of oppression with data being used. Also, the more pandemics and health crises we have, the more data the government will get. He furthers by saying that someone will abuse the data when data is present. I agree with this because the government can use data for malignant purposes, and if it’s available, the wrong person can have access to it and abuse it. However, I wonder how exactly this data can be used? Lastly, the only thing I disagree with is that this data could determine the functions of society, like who’s open to what capital opportunities, employment, and education. I disagree with this only because it seems a bit extreme to believe that healthcare data could go to these lengths of malware.
I am a sophomore psychology pre-med major. I am also from Houston Tx
